Unusual Alliance
by darkestboy
Summary: The Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves stopping an alliance between the Master and the Sontaran Linx, both of whom have plans to get even with them. Set between The Monster Of Peladon and Planet Of The Spiders.


**Name: **Unusual Alliance  
**Characters:** 3rd Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, the Master (Delgado), the Sontarans.  
**Synopsis:** The Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves stopping an alliance between the Master and the Sontaran Linx, both of whom have plans to get even with them. Set between _The Monster Of Peladon _and _Planet Of The Spiders_.

There had been a signal drawing them back to Earth and it was one that had worried Sarah Jane Smith when she saw that the very signal was somewhere that wasn't near enough to UNIT HQ either.

She had every confidence in the Doctor's abilities of handling unknown situations but every now and then, it was also nice to have an extra resource, especially considering how easily out of control most of the situations she found herself getting into with her new friend tended to be nowadays.

The TARDIS was parked securely in an alley, out of the sight of security guards guarding the facility they were about to break into.

"Are you sure this is it?" Sarah Jane asked the Doctor, as they managed to give three of the guards watching the front the slip and sneak into the facility.

"My little device says yes," the Doctor smiled, waving a part of the device at Sarah Jane while the rest of the thing hummed quietly.

"You're going to have to find a name for that thing at some point," Sarah Jane replied as she looked around cautiously, waiting for either more guards or something else to spring out at them.

"Any ideas?" the Doctor replied tartly as the mechanism hummed slightly louder and the Doctor motioned himself and Sarah Jane to head down a right hand corridor.

"I could ask you the same thing," Sarah Jane said in a lower voice. "Doctor, what exactly are we looking for?"

"I think you should be asking who we're looking for, Sarah," the Doctor replied in a low voice, one strained with a sighing familiarity. "This has his work all over it."

"His work?" Sarah Jane asked, genuinely confused. "I need a bit more than that, Doctor."

"The Master," the Doctor said in a strained voice. "I had hoped his alliance with the Daleks had seen him off."

"How do you know this man?" Sarah Jane whispered to the Doctor. They had infiltrated a secret laboratory and both the Doctor and Sarah Jane had no desire to get caught.

"Long story, Sarah," the Doctor whispered back to her. "But if we don't stop him, I dread to think what he'll achieve."

"You shouldn't dread the inevitable, Doctor," the Master sneered as he appeared from a corner, waving his tissue compression eliminator at the other Time Lord and journalist. "I'd been expecting you."

"I should've suspected that it was a little too easy getting past your guards," the Doctor sighed as he held his hands up. Sarah Jane found herself doing exactly the same thing.

"To be fair, Doctor, you really are quite easy to mislead," the Master motioned both the Doctor and Sarah Jane to follow him down a corner and into a room where they both saw another familiar face working on a machine, assembling wires together.

"Linx?" Sarah Jane exclaimed as the Master held a firm grip to her arm.

"Very astute, Miss Smith," the Master smiled admiringly at the young woman. "As the Doctor can tell you, I have many allies at my hands."

"I am not your ally," Linx snapped tersely as he continued his work on the machine. Sarah Jane noticed that his right foot was chained to the machine.

"Oh, really, then what are you?" the Doctor queried as the Master pointed his TCE at Sarah Jane. "A prisoner like one of us?"

"Don't be so melodramatic, Doctor," the Master smiled assuredly. "You and Miss Smith aren't my prisoners and neither is the Sontaran here. I simply just need two of you to work on that contraption Linx is currently tending to and preferably without delay or sabotage."

"What about me?" Sarah Jane asked, struggling to get out of the Master's grip. "What am I supposed to do?"

"A good question," the Doctor replied, watching both the Master and Sarah Jane. "You don't need my friend."

"No need to finish that sentence, Doctor," the Master said, pointing the TCE at Sarah Jane's neck. "She's your incentive to make sure my machine works to perfection. If you try in any way to sabotage my work, she dies."

"What about Linx?" Sarah Jane found herself asking again. "Why would he help you?"

"The Time Lord has my ship," Linx snarled in anger, moving only as far as his chain would allow him to. "I help him, I can leave this forsaken planet and not a moment too soon, so I'll kill you both and him if I don't get to continue my battle against the Rutans with my fleet."

"And what exactly am I working on?" the Doctor asked as he looked at the stream of wires and circuits from the machine. The Master gave him a sceptical look. "I can't help you if I don't know what I'm supposed to be fixing. What does this thing actually do?"

"I'm glad you asked," the Master grinned as he flung Sarah Jane to a corner and kept the TCE pointed at her. "This machine is going to help me take over the world."

"What?" Sarah Jane was the first say what the Doctor had been thinking. "How can that thing help you take over the world? Is that even possible?"

"To answer your second question, Miss Smith, it is entirely possible," the Master smiled with delight. "One thing you should know about me is that I have quite an influence."

"And with this contraption," the Doctor began connecting wires while looking at his enemy in disgust. "I assume it will accelerate your usual hypnotism to worldwide levels."

"Not necessarily worldwide yet," the Master found himself admitting. "But I should have this country under my thrall before teatime if you get a move on with it, Doctor. Then we'll go worldwide. Your friends at UNIT won't know what hit them."

"Neither will you," Sarah Jane muttered under her breath as the Master pulled her up and chained her to a pillar. The Doctor gave her a reassuring look and she kept quiet.

"As long as I'm far away from this worthless planet, I don't care what happens to it," Linx snarled in anger as he nearly electrocuted himself by trying to connect two opposing circuits. "Wretched machine."

"You better make sure my 'wretched machine' is fully operational, Linx," the Master replied, pointing his TCE at the Sontaran. "Or tiny jolts of electricity will be the least of your concerns."

"Don't agitate the Sontaran," the Doctor smiled as he motioned Linx to come to his side and help with more of the wiring. "Remember we're the ones helping you."

"And I am most grateful," the Master smiled back, his voice dripping with utter sarcasm. "Really, I couldn't have two further excellent minds at my behest even if I had scoured outside the universe for them."

"I loathe sarcasm," Linx said grouchily as he helped the Doctor and stared at both Time Lords with disdain. "But not as much as I loathe both of you Time Lords."

The Master had ignored Linx, instead focusing his attention on Sarah Jane, giving the Doctor enough time to pull the Sontaran away from earshot of the other Time Lord, as he showed him his sonic screwdriver.

"I set you free, you help me stop him, Linx," the Doctor whispered to the Sontaran. "And unlike the Master, I actually keep my word."

"I suppose you're the lesser of the two evils," Linx agreed reluctantly. "I accept your alliance."

"I was hoping you would say that." The Doctor looked victorious as the Master turned around and realised that both the other Time Lord and Sontaran had stopped working.

"What are you doing?" the Master asked as he watched the Doctor use the sonic screwdriver on the chain of Linx's foot.

"Sorry, Master but not today," the Doctor smiled as he whirled the screwdriver and aimed it at the TCE, knocking it clean out of the Master's hands and then worked on Sarah Jane's restraints.

"You'll both pay for this," the Master snarled as Linx came towards him and bound his hands in manacles that were lying about on the floor.

"You'll be paying for it actually," the Doctor replied as he went to grab the Master from Linx. "I'm taking you back to UNIT. Clearly you can't be left to your own devices."

"Then we're both going to be disappointed today, my dear Doctor," the Master pushed past the Time Lord, Sontaran and even Sarah Jane and went towards the pillar where the latter had been bound to and stepped inside it.

Before the Doctor could open it and before even Linx could attempt to shoot at it, having reclaimed a gun that had been left on a table, the Master and his TARDIS disappeared from the laboratory, leaving the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Linx equally as stunned as each other.

"Where's he gone?" Sarah Jane asked the Doctor as she noticed that Linx had pointed his gun at them before locking them inside the laboratory and disappearing himself.

"I don't know, Sarah," the Doctor replied as he picked up the TCE and destroyed the machine, before snapping the TCE apart with his bare hands. "But these are two weapons that won't be at his disposal shall he return here."

"And Linx?" Sarah Jane wondered as the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open the door of the laboratory, which they then stepped out of. "Will we see him again?"

When they had stepped outside, they saw Linx's spaceship leave the Earth as did a few stunned and clueless security guards, who attempted to shoot the thing down but barely grazed it as it left the atmosphere of the planet.

"I have a feeling we will," the Doctor said to Sarah Jane as they headed inside the TARDIS. "Something tells me that Linx is probably going to ensure our unusual alliance is something that won't happen again."

"I have a feeling you're right," Sarah Jane smiled as she watched the Doctor set a course for another destination. Even with a maniac loose in the cosmos, Sarah Jane realised that it never really stopped for the Doctor or her.

- The End -


End file.
